Scuttlebutt Europe #3093 - 29 May

Brought to you by Seahorse magazine, Scuttlebutt Europe is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to

RYA Commodores' Cup Trials Conclude The RYA is delighted to announce that following the conclusion of its selection trials over the bank holiday weekend (24-26 May), four teams have been selected to represent RYA Team GBR at the Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup 2014 19-26 July in Cowes, Isle of Wight, where Great Britain will aim to defend its 2012 title.

The selection trials started on 3 May with the RORC Cervantes Trophy across to Le Havre.

Due to the cancellation of the Vice Admiral's Cup, which was due to be run between 9 - 11 May, to provide the inshore section of the trials, the remainder of the trials had to be re-organised swiftly to ensure that selections could be based on good, solid racing. This included organising a re-run version of the Vice Admiral's Cup and a specific offshore race run for the RYA by RORC, which were all squeezed into the bank holiday weekend.

Based on the results and performances across the trials, the following teams have been selected to represent RYA Team GBR at the Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup 2014;

RORC Debut For Team Brunel Over 50 yachts from Austria, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Holland will contest the 180 mile race from Harwich, UK to Scheveningen, Holland starting Friday May 30th. The North Sea Race is the fourth race of the RORC Season's Points Championship and has a weighted points score of 1.2 towards the series points tally.

The hot favourite for Line Honours will be the Dutch Volvo Ocean 65, Team Brunel. Skippered by Bouwe Bekking, this will be the first occasion that one of the new one-design racing yachts has raced with the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Three other Volvo Ocean 65 are already confirmed for the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race this August.

Dutch Volvo 60 Pleomax makes its RORC racing debut for 2014, once again led by North Sea Race veteran, Harm Prims. Pleomax won IRC Zero in last year's North Sea Race to kick start a season, in which the Dutch team also won IRC Zero for the RORC Season's Points Championship.

In IRC One, a close battle is expected between four highly regarded yachts that have competed in the race before. Austrian ILC40, Visione, skippered by Nikolaus Knoflacher, is the scratch boat and will need to put some distance on Leon Westhoeve's BH41, Soulmate, which was a class winner last year. Two J/133s make up the class with British skipper, Angus Bates in charge of Assarain IV and Dutch skipper, Bart Desaunois, racing Batfish Two Handed.

Fresh from their win in last weekend's Myth of Malham Race. Vincent Willemart and Eric Campenhout's Belgian MC34, Azawakh will be racing in IRC Two. Azawakh will be ranked as one of the favourites for this race.

12 yachts will be racing in the Two Handed Class that are all based in Holland, including several that raced in the short handed discipline last year; Astrid De Vin's Il Corvo, Chris Schram's So What and Harry Rek's Harpoen. -- Louay Habib

Harken Tech Team On Duty At June Regattas Sail for Gold Olympic Classes Regatta, Weymouth and Portland, UK, June 1-6. Our UK pro, Paul Davis, is the man in charge of our well-stocked service van. Reach him on his mobile: 07969 2998458.

Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta, Porto Cervo, Sardegna, June 3-7. Italy's Francesco Canzi and Pietro Schiaffonati will make sure your boat is race-ready. Find them at the service van on the main "A" pontoon-just look for the Harken flag.

The Superyacht Cup, Palma de Mallorca, June 18-21. Harken Italy technicians will be onsite at The Superyacht Cup. Emergency spare parts are available at RSB Rigging Solutions in Palma. Mobile phone number 34 620 103 783. Email:

Entry Deadline Approaching for ORC Central European Championship Cres, Croatia -- Entries received before this Sunday, June 1st, will enjoy the last entry fee discount to the 2014 ORC Central European Championship, when the fee increases from €700 to €1000. The event runs over 22-28 June in Cres, Croatia and is organized by the Sailing Club of Rijeka (SCOR).

Due to its idyllic location, scenic backdrop and historic town setting in a fully-protected harbor, as well as generally excellent sailing conditions, Cres has a strong 15-year history of hosting numerous past championship events, including a record number of entries attracted to the 2011 ORC World Championship.

There are teams entered now from 8 countries, and soon after the June 1st entry deadline class divisions will be set. Entries include a wide variety of boat types, from serious full-race teams to more casual cruiser/racers, with all eligible for daily awards as well as overall prizes.

Organizers from the SCOR have also announced that overall winners in each division will also receive an automatic entry to the SCOR's premier offshore event, the Thousand Island Race from Rijeka to Montenegro, being held in September.

Sailing Stars and History Converge for Etchells Championship The New York Yacht Club at Harbour Court, in Newport, R.I., hosts the 2014 Etchells World Championship from June 21 to 28.

With a registered fleet of 95 boats, sailed by many of the world's top professional and amateur sailors, the class's 46th world championship will be one of the biggest and most competitive in its celebrated history.

Long Island Sound yacht designer and builder Skip Etchells created the 31-foot keelboat in 1965 hoping to win selection as the new Olympic keelboat. The design dominated the racing in the selection trials, but lost in the onshore voting.

Nearly 50 years after the first boat touched water, the class is as strong as ever.

The number of entries in recent class world championships has varied from 41 last year to a high of 100 in 1998.

Up to nine races are scheduled, all but one of which will count toward a team's final score. Registration and measurement for the regatta will start on Saturday, June 21, with the racing taking place on Rhode Island Sound, Tuesday, June 24, through Saturday, June 28.

Three sunny days of competition culminated in the Swedish World #3 defeating the Dane 2-0 in a light win final.

Aschenbrenner came out on top of the 12 team round robin sailed on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 May as he defeated Hansen along the way.

The Dane advanced to the final following a 3-0 semi-final victory over Women's World #1 Camilla Ulrikkeholm (DEN), who is gearing up for the ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship set to be held in Cork, Ireland next week.

Hansen meanwhile had to work harder to earn his place in the final. In the best of five series semi-final it went down to a final deciding race against Reuben Corbett (NZL) and the Swedish racer came out on top.

Hansen kept his cool in the final and sealed the deal with a 2-0 victory. Ulrikkeholm was equally comfortable in the Petit Final, winning 2-0 against Corbett.

Onboard & Onshore With Hudson Wight The Hudson Wight Performance Sailwear brand will be very evident both afloat and ashore throughout the season, supporting a variety of events as the official clothing sponsor and supplier to a number of high profile yachting regattas and events around the UK.

We are delighted to be supporting Sail 4 Cancer by donating Raffle and Auction prizes for 11 significant regattas. Competitors at all events will either win or bid for a high-value Hudson WIght voucher enabling them to choose or redeem against key items such as the much-lauded HW1 'oilies'.

As Official Clothing Sponsor to the Poole Regatta (24-26 May), Race Officers will be kitted out in event branded HW1 oilies, and top value prizes are being donated for class winners and the overall regatta winner.

The Hudson Wight pop-up-shops are proving really popular and there will be one up and running for the duration of the Poole Regatta.

Looking ahead to June, Hudson Wight is racing in the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race on 21st June with solo offshore sailor Lizzy Foreman on the helm of Hudson Wight, her Mini 6.50. She's one of the great British hopes for next year's gruelling Mini Transat and Hudson Wight is on board for the duration of her campaign as her title sponsor.

Prize Money For World's Best Women's Match Racers The ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championships organising committee is proud to announce a prize fund of €10,000 to be allocated to the top sailors at the regatta, set to be held from 3-8 June 2014 in Cork, Ireland.

Thirteen international teams are due at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven next week to compete at this year's World Championship. This includes Danish Sailor Camilla Ulrikkeholm, World #1 in the ISAF Women's World Match Race Rankings.

Dongfeng Race Team Due To Set Sail On Transatlantic Test 'Dongfeng' safely arrived in the USA one week ago, thanks to 'Maersk Line', the team's new Official Shipping Partner. She has since been re-assembled and prepared in Newport, Rhode Island, one of the 10 stops in the Volvo Ocean Race next year and is now ready for the gruelling journey ahead. The team are scheduled to set sail in the coming days for their first transatlantic crossing and Skipper Charles Caudrelier will use this passage to help decide the team for the race that is now less than five months away. The final race squad will be announced on June 26 at a press conference in Lorient, France.

Charles will be making final evaluations of all the sailors during this transatlantic test, including world-class sailors Martin Strömberg, Pascal Bidegorry, Eric Peron and Thomas Rouxel. He will be testing both the Western sailors and the Chinese apprentices, as well as their compatibility - making a final decision on the team for the race in the weeks that follow.

Although still very much in the running for the final race team, Chinese sailors Liu 'Leo' Ming and Ying 'Kit' Cheng will stay ashore for the crossing, and Kong Chen Chen who recently joined the team from the China Yachting Association's Olympic class sailing programme will step onboard.

Team Tilt Wins The Open De Crans On Lake Geneva The young Team Tilt crew won the Open de Crans, second stage of the Decision 35 Vulcain Trophy, last weekend in Crans-pres-Celigny on Lake Geneva. Conditions on Saturday were perfect and the fleet made the most of the spring weather posting six races. Sunday's forecast was not so good and very light winds kept the fleet ashore. Realstone and Ladycat powered by Spindrift Racing completed the podium.

This result combined with a fifth place at the Grand Prix des Ambassadeurs two weeks ago puts Team Tilt in second overall on the season leaderboard on equal points with Realstone and Alinghi. The team that was formed 15 months ago for the Red Bull Youth America's Cup is proving that this established one design circuit is well within the reach of young crews.

Days To Go.... The start of the inaugural IMOCA Ocean Masters New York to Barcelona Race is on June 1 at 1200 US Eastern Daylight Time. On Thursday New York will get a taste of what is to come on Sunday with the Hugo Boss Watches Manhattan Charity Race, for the four boats that have arrived so far in Manhattan's North Cove Marina.

Racing starts at 1200 for Safran, GAES centros auditivos, Neutrogena and Hugo Boss, on a line in the Hudson River, directly off North Cove Marina. Depending on the wind conditions the IMOCA 60s will sail one of two courses. The longer takes the boats south into Upper Bay, past the Statue of Liberty and down to a turning mark just short of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn, before return back up to a mark off Governors Island on the east side of Upper Bay and back to the start. The shorter course will be the same, but without the most southerly mark, near the Bridge. Racing is expected to last no longer than two hours.

Meanwhile Nandor Fa and Marcell Moszleth on Spirit of Hungary are expected into Manhattan on Friday morning.

Yesterday Spirit of Hungary met some brutal conditions forcing the boat north. Fa reported: "It's been pretty tough. We were upwind in 40-45 knots, gusting to 50 at times, combined with monsoon-strength rain and only 100m visibility. The boat was constantly being smashed and beaten by the waves… We were literally sailing for our lives. "Since then, the wind has calmed but the waves still made our lives miserable this morning.